An American Werewolf in London Review
Written by: Steve Lewis
"When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth." A classic line said by Ken Foree in the original and remake of Dawn of the Dead.
The dead have definately out-numbered the human popution and a safe places are practically extinct. There is one place, Fiddler's Green, but there is a problem. The zombies are starting to show personalities and they are constantly learning. Now with an army of "stenches" nearing the city and a rogue scavenger planning to destroy Fiddler's Green with it's own protection vechile, the Dead Reckoning, will Fiddler's Green or the human race survive?
The long, long awaited third sequel of Romero's dead trilogy finally reaches theatres and I can honestly say, bravo Mr. Romero. It may be the least favorite of all fourth films but it's not at all bad, it's quite actually great!
With human society crumbling under the pressure of zombie control, social statuses still remain. Power is still a luxury and human compassion lies with the lower class and not the wealthy elite. Humans turn onto other humans while a zombie won't turn on another zombie which constitutes us as being as worse as the dead. Is better to die and come back to have no emotion? or to live and fight with each other? Though we see Big Daddy having emotion, he mainly cares for his dead race. Showing the ropes so to say.
Riley (Simon Baker) is the heart-filled hero. He contends to stay with his word if only if it's the right move to make. He doesn't liked to be pushed around and I think Baker really put the Riley character into control.
Cholo (John Lequizamo) plays the rogue. Although, I don't think he is the right person to play the role because of his usual funny accent, I do believe that he tried his best and pulled it off somehow. Even Cholo wanted to be a zombie just to see how the other half lived. That would maybe consider himself selfish? or just mad at the world?
Kaufman (Dennis Hopper) the human villian of the movie. Another actor that I thought didn't fit the role. Hopper is better at playing a psychotic killer than an intelligent and slick business man.
Slack (Asia Argento) plays the female lead and one hot babe. Tough and sophisticated, she brings up the rear of the Riley. They would be the cute couple if they were married because they are so much alike. Just wanting to be left alone.
Charlie (Robert Joy) is the loveable and comedic character that turns out to be my favorite of the movie. You feel sorry for the guy at first but he turns out to be one useful son of a gun. With his carbine at hand, he is a dangerous sharpshooter and a loyal friend.
Big Daddy (Eugene Clark) fits the appearance of the head zombie but groans as if his nipples were being twisted. His groans were really getting cheesy and my ears could hardly take it. He did prove to be the role of the leader and teacher of the zombie army.
The supporting actors were pretty much all amazing but nothing too much to talk about.
The gore was plenty to please any fan and the scarce of CGI was placed beautifully. Only a few scenes of some gore and explosions were used for CGI, Romero didn't lie to us about that. The makeup and specials effects stayed true to the series as the zombies progress in getting older and uglier. The creativity of some of the aspects of the movie is ingenius, such as Sky Flowers. Using fireworks to distract the living dead from attacking humans is unthought of and new to the zombie genre.
The ending isn't the greatest ending in the world though. It was, well, too corny. Dead Reckoning sets off into the moon set while the zombies rage through the city. Yea, it's a bit..dull. Oh well, still a great zombie film, fun for the whole family.